Aug 11, 2025
The latest batch of Ameca splendens fry. I’ve been keeping this species for about 15 years. I wonder what generation from the originals these are. 30th? 70th? 100th? Beats me.
seen from China
seen from China
seen from Bangladesh
seen from Malaysia
seen from Japan
seen from Germany
seen from Vietnam
seen from United States
seen from China
seen from China
seen from United States
seen from Japan
seen from Malaysia
seen from Malaysia
seen from Japan
seen from India
seen from Kenya
seen from Maldives
seen from Japan
seen from Japan
The latest batch of Ameca splendens fry. I’ve been keeping this species for about 15 years. I wonder what generation from the originals these are. 30th? 70th? 100th? Beats me.
the list!!!
every creature that's endangered or critically endangered or extinct in the wild that you can keep and breed in your own (freshwater) aquarium to stop it from dying out completely.
ive been working on this for a while and its still very not done bc oh my god theres so many-
some of these are super duper rare and expensive but others are widely beloved fish, some of them are rlly surprising to see here
pls lmk if theres anything i should add that i havent yet :3 theres a lot of undescribed species that you dont find in databases and stuff so i need all the obsessed nerds i can find to finish this!!!
not bolded = endangered
bolded = critically endangered
red = extinct in the wild (THESE LITERALLY ONLY EXIST WHERE WE KEEP THEM 0.0)
okay here it is :3
Golden skiffia (Skiffia francesae)
Critically endangered
When the golden skiffias still lived in their natural home, it was a warm, quiet, gentle, spring-fed river with a bottom of sand and silt and mud, where they found shelter in the roots of floating plants that grew along the shore, beneath a canopy of acacias and willows. They foraged for algae on the plants, and thrived in their river, the Rio Teuchitlán.
Decades ago, the Teuchitlán was polluted, the springs that fed it were damaged, the acacias and willows were killed, and the banks were smothered in farms and urban sprawl. The skiffias barely persisted, and the last nail in the coffin was the introduction of the invasive common platyfish. It took only a year for the platys to outnumber the skiffias fifty to one. The golden skiffia was declared extinct in the wild in 1996.
Some people loved that river. They despised the horrific things that had been done to it. That’s what drove a coalition of conservation groups to heal the river - they stopped the pollution, restored the banks, and removed the platys - then, they got to work putting the pieces of its ecosystem back together. In November 2022, Over a thousand golden skiffias, descended from fish that had been cared for in aquariums for almost fifty years since they were found in a dying river in 1976, were finally released back into the wild.
…I can’t find what happened after that. Their relative the tequila splitfin was released a few years earlier, and it’s been thriving - but no update at all on the skiffias. I hope they’re alright.
Golden skiffias are barely more than one and a half inches long, they’re really cute- they’re very energetic too, always chasing each other and searching and exploring and picking at everything they can find, as long as they never venture into deep water. And they’re social!!! they love to be in large, loose shoals where they find safety and potential mates. They can be hard to find but they’re so interesting and I love their bright yellow splotches :3
Also, they’re in a really wonderfully bizarre family called the livebearers- they literally give live birth!!! Not like seahorses where they keep the eggs in a pouch, or like some snakes where they just don’t lay them until they hatch. No, they have an umbilical cord and everything. They have way fewer babies that way, but they’re safe from anything that might eat fish eggs, which is most things. Also the babies are HUGE :P
Golden skiffias hate deep water, so they need a shallow tank - it should be at least 15 gallons but ten inches of depth is plenty for them to explore. The tank should mimic the Teuchitlán - dense vegetation and sunken wood to provide shelter and grow algae, moderate water flow, and lots of oxygen. A simple bubbler is a great way to keep them healthy. The water should be hard, and cool (68-74 F) since anything more than room temperature can affect their immune system. And it has to be really really clean - change out at least two thirds of the water weekly!!! I know that sounds really excessive if you’ve kept any other fish but most goodeids really do appreciate it.
They have a couple other odd requirements too. They do best if you give them even cooler temperatures, like 40-60 F, for 3ish months in winter. That way they can rest - they won’t breed in winter since they’re just chilling but they’ll be healthier in spring. The other is that they will thrive more if you keep them outside in the spring and fall when the weather is nice. They don’t really need it, but something about it makes them a lot healthier and they breed so much faster.
Since they’re social animals, make sure you get at least a small group to start out with. They’re easy to breed as long as they’re happy, but they can be pretty slow about it - they take about 8 weeks to give birth to 5-15 babies (more as they get older). Luckily, as long as they’re well fed and they have enough room they won’t eat their fry, so you only need one tank. Since they are endangered at best, it’s important that you don’t keep them with other skiffias or they could hybridize - I don’t have anything against hybrids except that it doesn’t really count as preserving the species. They’re best kept only with their own species or with something small that won’t eat the fry. It’s hard to find much information about the golden skiffia specifically but some of their relatives can be aggressive so keep that in mind and add plenty of hiding spots to the tank.
Skiffias need a plant based diet with just a little protein - they love blanched veggies and seem to dedicate their lives to eating algae, and you can feed them regular fish flakes and pellets too. Their favorite protein source is baby brine shrimp - just make sure you only give them meaty foods as an occasional treat :3
These are rlly fun fish if you can find some - just make sure u share the babies :3
If anyone in New York or New Jersey is interested in buying some of my endangered Ameca Splendens fish let me know. I want to keep breeding them but my tank is close to being overcrowded and I don't want to set up another one. Facebook no longer allows animal sales and with the local fish stores now closed I have no outlet for them. They are livebearers and despite most likely being extinct in the wild they are very easy to keep and breed. They can be community fish but due to their rarity they are best kept in a planted species tank where they can breed. The number of fry they give birth to at a time is rarely more than 6-8 but the fry are very large when they are born and the adults do not eat them. Females should give birth twice per year. Not too much is known about their preferred conditions but I keep mine in hard water in an unheated tank and they thrive. In temperatures over 74 degrees my males lose the yellow coloration on their tales so I have reason to believe that they don't like their water too warm. They are $6 each. A stoop pick up can be arranged so any buyers do not have to have direct contact with me. Located in Essex County, please message me if interested.
Look at all these babies! This is after I sold eight the other day. I need to sell more to make room for the ones on the way.
The endangered Ameca splendens are doing well. Two of the largest females are pregnant again. However for some mysterious reason the crypts in this tank have melted overnight. It's not a big deal because in almost all cases the roots of the plants survive and they recover quickly, but I'm just baffled as to what could have caused it because there has been no change in temperature, lighting, or water quality. Maybe I should check the CO2 levels but I don't think that would change.
There are currently a ton of fry in the tank. With other livebearers I'd cull some and only leave the best ones for breeding but since they're an endangered species maybe it's best to keep as much generic diversity as possible. A few have deformed tails but I think that's just a birthing problem and not genetic because these fish are born huge with an umbilical cord and the younger females are small. They can still swim well; luckily it doesn't seem to be impacting them much.
*By cull I mean put the less nice fry into a community tank or give them away; I'm not one of those people that feeds unwanted baby fish and shrimp to bigger fish.